oots, and what not--in a word, a man who was determined
to live by his wits. It was difficult for these people to see how
education would produce any other kind of a coloured man. . . .

On the morning that the school opened thirty students reported for
admission. I was the only teacher. The students were about equally
divided between the sexes. . . . The greater part of the thirty were
public school teachers, and some of them were nearly forty years of age.

At the end of the first six weeks a new and rare face entered the
school as a co-teacher. This was Miss Olivia A. Davidson, who later
became my wife. . . .

Miss Davidson and I began consulting as to the future of the school
from the first. The students were making progress in learning books
and in developing their minds; but it became apparent at once, that, if
we were to make any permanent impression upon those who had come to us
for training, we must do something besides teach them mere books. The
students had come from homes where they had had no opportunities for
lessons which would teach them how to care for their bodies. With few
exceptions, the homes in Tuskegee in which the students boarded were
but little improvement upon those from which they had come. We wanted
to teach the students how to bathe; how to care for their teeth and
clothing. We wanted to teach them what to eat, and how to eat it
properly, and how to care for their rooms. Aside from this, we wanted
to give them such a practical knowledge of some one industry, together
with the spirit of industry, thrift, and economy, that they would be
sure of knowing how to make a living after they had left us. We wanted
to teach them to study actual things instead of mere books alone. . . .

We wanted to give them such an education as would fit a large
proportion of them to be teachers, and at the same time cause them to
return to the plantation districts and show the people there how to put
new energy and new ideas into farming, as well as into the intellectual
and moral and religious life of the people.

All these ideals and needs crowded themselves upon us with a
seriousness that seemed well-nigh overwhelming. What were we to do?
We had only the little old shanty and the abandoned church which the
good coloured people of the town of Tuskegee had kindly loaned us for
the accommodation of the classes. The number of students was
increasing daily. The more we saw of them, and the more we